Steve Grimes Guitars

Building guitars for a living and having
a reputation as one of the best luthiers
in the boutique category would probably be
a dream scenario for most admirers of the
guitar. How about having your shop 4,000
feet up Mt. Haleakala on the island of Maui?
As a woodworker and working musician,
Steve Grimes was fascinated by the prospect
of combining the two professions and began
building guitars in the early ’70s. Now with
almost 40 years of building high-end archtops,
flattops, mandolins, and ukes, Grimes
has amassed an impressive client list which
includes such luminaries as George Benson,
Walter Becker, Steve Miller, and Willie
Nelson, to name a few.

While Grimes does have a large selection
of standard model instruments, he specializes
in custom tailoring one-off guitars to suit the
tonal, aesthetic, and playability requirements
of his customers. When asked about one of
his more interesting custom requests, Grimes
recalled the “Family Tree” guitar he built for
a well-known collector. A double-soundhole,
flattop guitar, Grimes designed a fretboard
with a tree of life inlay, but instead of flowers
in the vine he made highly detailed engravings
of the faces of the customer’s family.
From the grandfather on down to a four-year-
old daughter, Grimes succeeded in capturing
the expressions so well that the young
girl recognized all the family members.

Grimes Guitars is a relatively small shop
with only one other luthier on staff. The
instruments are produced slowly and meticulously
by hand with just about 20 created
each year. Grimes builds a few guitars at a
time from start to finish, believing that he is
better able to control the response and tonal
characteristics as each instrument progresses.

When questioned about what present
trend in luthiery would have a major effect
20 years from now, Grimes says, “I think
that the current trend toward mechanization
and computerization will continue to
evolve, yielding guitars with high quality
and lower prices.” He continued, “But I
think we are still a long way off from having
a computer being able to discern good
wood from bad, voicing guitars depending
on the stiffness of wood, and catering to the
specific tonal and aesthetic needs of players
looking for something special. I expect I’ll
still be taking custom orders in 30 years.”

Jazz Laureate
The woods used for the Jazz Laureate—available
in cutaway and non-cutaway—are
selected from hundreds of samples of master
grade wood for their exceptional tonal characteristics
and visual beauty. The backs and
sides are cut from the same billet of old cello
wood, ensuring visual and tonal continuity,
and Grimes personally chooses and tests this
wood for lightness, stiffness, sustain, and
purity of tone. Appointments include five-ply
wood purflings with an optional dyed wood
strip in the center of the five plies, and wood
bindings consisting of curly koa, rosewood,
silkwood, curly maple, or African blackwood.
Inlays include a multi-layered diamond consisting
of alternating strips of paua shell abalone
from New Zealand and mother-of-pearl.

Pescatore
This custom guitar, called the Pescatore,
features soundholes that resemble fishhooks
in the ancient Hawaiian design. Needless
to say, it was built for a customer that loves
to fish. The Pescatore is a departure from
Grimes’ more traditional archtops in a few
ways. For one, the body is not symmetrical,
and it features two points in the upper bout.
The location of the two soundholes imparts a
unique tone since there is more room on the
bass side between the bridge and the widest
part of the body, and a larger area from neck
to tail for the bass tones to develop. The bridge
is 100 percent ebony with no metal studs or
adjusting wheels, allowing the bridge to be 75
percent of the weight of a traditional archtop
bridge. A lighter bridge has less damping effect
on the overall tone and volume. The action is
adjusted by loosening the strings and simply
sliding in a slightly lower or higher saddle.

The Beamer Steel String
This double soundhole guitar was originally
designed for and made popular by acclaimed
Hawaiian slack key artist Keola Beamer.
By moving the soundhole away from the
traditional spot at the end of the fretboard,
a larger area of the top can be utilized to
achieve a bigger sound overall. Grimes likens
the difference between one traditional 3
7/8" and two 2 7/8" soundholes to the bass
richness of a 15" woofer compared to a 10"
woofer on a stereo system. Available in OM
(15 1/8" wide) and Concert (16" wide) sizes,
the Beamer is offered with an Engelmann
or Sitka spruce top and the choice of koa,
mahogany, Indian rosewood, maple, or walnut
for the back and sides.

25th Anniversary Koa Edition
1999 was Grimes’ 25th year of producing
archtop instruments. To commemorate the
milestone, he designed an archtop guitar
that originally was intended to be a limited
edition guitar. The design proved to be so
popular that he’s still taking orders for this
model. Only the most special sets of wood
Grimes has acquired over the years are used
to construct the 25th Anniversary Model
guitars, and they all feature wooden binding
and purfling with maple, rosewood, African
blackwood, ebony, bloodwood, or curly
koa. Available in 16", 16.5", 17", and 18"
sizes, the pictured guitar is finished in Light
Parchment and is loaded with an optional
DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1100 pickup.

Bird of Paradise
The Bird of Paradise model is a semi-solidbody
electric guitar that features carved,
curly maple top and back plates with a
Honduras mahogany core. The body is 60
percent solid, providing excellent sustain
without the unnecessary weight of a solidbody
and the feedback problems inherent
in many acoustic-electrics. Designed with
excellent balance in mind and weighing
approximately 7.5 pounds, it is comfortable
to hold for longer periods of time. Sporting
an oval soundhole, the pickups and electronics
are per customer’s specifications. This
particular Bird of Paradise is outfitted with a
pair of Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers.

Pricing and Availability
The approximate waiting period for a
Grimes guitar is currently 18 months or
more, depending on the order. Pricing
varies per model, from $9200 for the
Bird of Paradise to $18,500 for the 25th
Anniversary to $22,000 for the Pescatore.
With a variety of add-ons and options, the
sky is certainly the limit.

Associate Editor Rich Osweiler started playing guitar at the tender age of 8, but over the years bass has become his main instrument. Prior to joining Premier Guitar, Rich worked at Acoustic Guitar for close to 10 years, most recently as associate publisher and director of marketing. He loves all types of music—from gypsy jazz to lo-fi and grindcore—provided the genre name isn’t preceded by the “contemporary” tag. Outside of music, Rich enjoys travel, skiing, backpacking, and learning how to be a dad. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, daughter, and their dog, Kiko.

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